The 42 Vienna curriculum is part of the international 42 network, originally developed at École 42 in Paris. It’s used in 50+ campuses worldwide — constantly evolving and tested by thousands of students.
We don’t teach abstract theory for the sake of it. Instead, you’ll work on increasingly complex coding challenges that simulate real-world situations — from your first “Hello World” to advanced algorithms and system design.
After the Piscine you focus on carefully designed projects about command line interactions, elementary C programming, and elementary algorithms. Afterwards, there will be more challenging projects and larger teams in the topics of programming, algorithms, C Unix programming, and web programming.
12-24 months
Test your skills and your programming knowledge in the real world.
4-6 months
The main part of the curriculum: 100 projects that give you real world challenges and require more time and larger teams to be completed successfully.
~ 18 months
Realize your ambitions and sharpen your new skills in a real work environment.
6 months
The freedom of the 42 curriculum gives everyone he opportunity to build up their own individual skillset.
Depending on your progress and campus offerings, you can even explore opportunities at other 42 campuses worldwide.
The program at 42 begins with the Common Core, an intensive foundational period that establishes the necessary minimum human and technical skills. This stage is structured into seven thematic modules, each featuring multiple hands-on projects, and students progress at their own pace—the maximum duration is 24 months. You will learn the programming languages C and Python, develop software using classic algorithms, explore file system access and UNIX process management, receive introductions to network architecture and system administration, and cover Object-Oriented Programming through a final client-server project. Since the Common Core is identical across all 42 campuses worldwide, completing it qualifies you immediately to participate in international inter-campus and exchange projects.
Automation, Disk Partitioning, Firewall Management, Job Scheduling, Operaing System Installation, Policy Implementation, …
Algorithmic Strategy, Automated Compilation, Command Line Argument Parsing, Complexity Analysis, Imperative Programming, Sorting, …
API Integraion, Data Extraction, Promptt Engineering, Sampling, Schema Enforcement, Structured Data Generation, …
Basic Data Types, Control Flow, Expressions, First Order Functions, Variables, Class, Attributes and Methods, …
Auomated Compilation, Dynamic Memory Allocation, Library Creation, Linked Lists, Memory Management & Pointers, Strings, …
Command Line Argument Parsing, Resources Management & Starvation Prevention, Mulithreading, Scheduling, Synchronization Primitives, System Design Trade Off Analysis, …
API Design, Application Packaging & Deployment, Application Security, Containerization, Data Modeling & Schema Design, Database Querying, …
Once you’ve completed the Common Core at 42 Vienna, a world of opportunities opens up.
As part of the global 42 network, you can continue your studies — known as the Advanced Studies — at any other 42 campus worldwide. Whether you want to specialize in game development in Madrid, dive into AI in Paris, or explore cybersecurity in Lisbon, you’re free to shape your own path.
